AMONG men it is easier to bear with faults than with extenuation, yet man’s mouth is full of excuses before Him who inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy. The penitent cry, “I have sinned,” God hears; the covering up of transgressions He hates. Addressing such as profess to believe God’s word, and who, while owning that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God,” yet betake themselves to the ten commandments, we shall ask you certain things in order that you may inquire whether you believe “that what things soever the laws saith, it saith to them that are under the law: THAT EVERY MOUTH MAY BE STOPPED, and all the world may become GULITY BEFORE GOD.”
You have placed yourself under the law, you cry, “Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.” But do you really believe that God means what he says, “Do this and thou shalt live?” Are you depending for eternity in any measure upon doing what the law enjoins? If so, do you believe that once—say only once—in all your life time you have transgressed any one of the commandments? Have you ever had one thought contrary to the holy just and good law? Have you once desired that which the law said you should not wish for? Then hear the awful sentence, “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them.” You are under this curse if you are under the law. You have offended in one point—you are guilty of all; death is your doom.
Perhaps you are so bold as to spiritualize the law. Now, in sober honesty, what would you say if a criminal, proved guilty of breaking his country’s laws, were to address the judge, “My lord, I beg you to observe that I do not take the law of this land literally, and when it says to me, Thou shalt not steal, I understand it in a sort of spiritual sense?” But many men with the fullest assurance, preach and practice a spiritualization—in truth—a weakening of the plain and only meaning of God’s law. Such “religion,” however it may pass current in this world, will not bold good before God. It should be called by its proper name, impiety, profanity, a taking of the Lord’s name in vain, for which He will not hold guiltless. But if you will place yourself under the law, be honest, go to Sinai, hear the rolling thunders and noise of trumpet, behold the lightnings and the smoking mount, and, as Israel did, remove and stand afar off, fear exceedingly and quake; for God speaks thus to you; you are under His curse.
Surely if you do believe God’s word, you will give up your routine of so-called “law-keeping,” and inquire for what purpose is the law? “It was added because of transgressions.” Weighed in its balances you are found wanting. Measured by its standard you are short of holiness. Tested by its proofs you are guilty. The law was not given for a man to save himself by it, but to show him his sinfulness and his powerlessness, and thus to drive him to the sacrifice. “If there had been a law which could have given life verily righteousness should have been by the law; but the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them who believe. “God has said it,” By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight; for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”
“Be not deceived, God is not mocked; whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” If you sow an empty religion to your soul, you will reap everlasting death. May God open your eyes, and show you by His Spirit your real condition in His sight, that your mouth may be stopped, and you feel your guilt before God.
But supposing the impossibility of your having kept the law, and of your having fulfilled all its requirements, there is another standard more excellent than even it by which God will test the children of men. And we ask you, Do you believe that Jesus Christ the Son of God was man upon this earth? Have you considered the grace and truth which came by Him? Yes, it is more excellent than the law which was given by Moses.
We remove then from thunderings and lightnings to behold the glory of God in the face of His Son. You believe the records of His life on earth as given by the Holy Ghost, and see in Jesus perfect holiness and perfect love in the midst of evil and hate. Are you like Him? Have you ever fallen short of His standard? Have you kept all His injunctions as laid down in Matt. 5; 6; 7, and Luke 6? Is your life an exact reproduction of His?
Nor is it sufficient to say, But it is not my nature to bear spittings, scourgings, mockings, as He did. Never to murmur, never to repine, never to threaten. His patience, meekness, gentleness, is divine. Quite true, it is divine, for He is God; yet very Man as well as very God, and in Him you see what a man the Lord from heaven can be in this world of sinners.
It would be more consistent of persons calling themselves Christians to make Christ their standard rather than the law; yet who in many places would be so bold as to substitute the life of Christ for the Ten Commandments, and cry, Lord, have mercy upon us, make us exactly like Christ?
It was alone in Him that the Father was ever well pleased. Adam did not please Him; every man is full of iniquity, but in Jesus was no sin. Christian (by name), “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.”
If you are honest, if you believe in your heart what God the Holy Ghost records of the life of Jesus on earth, then you must own your utterly ruined and lost condition; that your nature is polluted in its very springs; that what God delights in your nature hates; that you are an enemy to God by wicked works. We know it is the fashion of so-called Christians to write about the life of Christ on earth, but read what saith the Scripture; compare yourself with Jesus, and you will say, “I am vile, I will lay my hand upon my mouth;” “I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth Thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”
One more question, dear reader, upon these great facts of Christianity and of God’s word, which every professing Christian accepts; yet it is even more solemn than what has already been said. To have heard God speaking from Sinai to men is solemn enough, but to hear and see His own Son upon this earth, oh, what can be set beside this? But we say there is an accepted fact vastly more dreadful and yet more blessed. Do you indeed believe that Jesus died for sinners? I would that you entered your closet and shut the door, and alone before God answered this question. Do you believe that He died? that He shed His blood and gave up His life? that man nailed Him to the cross of wood and pierced His side? that verily the Maker of the worlds was nailed to the cross, and wounded, and crucified by the hands and hearts of that very dust—man—to which He gave breath? Can you possibly believe this in your heart, and have one thought of man being worthy of anything save the murderer’s doom? Further, do you believe that God hid His face from Him, forsook Him, left Him in the darkness? Left Him in whom was no sin, who knew no sin, Him in whom He was ever well pleased, because He was made sin for us?
If you do so believe, you believe that you yourself deserve all that Christ endured, and (though it would be impossible) a thousand-fold more. If you believe that He took the guilty culprit’s place, and suffered in his stead, you believe and feel that your state is so utterly bad that nothing but the death of Christ could meet it. As for self-improvement, as for trying to keep commandments, or for trying to become like Christ, —no, no; all such thoughts are banished forever from your mind the moment you see Christ dying for you.
If you saw a murderer on the way to execution, what would you say to the moralist who bade the man conduct himself in a manner suitable to the dignity of humanity? You would bid the prating fool know it was too late. Or if a religious man drew near and real the unhappy victim a sermon on the ten commandments, you would cry, Away, mocker, it is too late; for such a man there is nothing but the sword of justice and the felon’s grave. And so we cry aloud to you, It is too late for morality to save you, too late for religion to save you, 1800 YEARS TOO LATE; there is nothing for you as you are but the justice of God and everlasting death, if Christ be refused as your Saviour.
Our earnest desire and prayer for you is your salvation; but Christ you will never want, His blood you will never value, saved you will never be, heaven you will never gain, unless as a guilty sinner you draw near to God. It is a melancholy task to dwell so much upon evil, but may God prove to you your guilt by the law, your polluted nature by the life of Jesus, His judgment upon you by the death of His Son, and give you to own yourself guilty, condemned, dead in sin.
What would you say to the physician who allowed your dearest friend to die without warning him of his approaching end? The very thought of such cruel selfishness stirs your indignation, but with what feelings shall the preacher of peace be regarded when there is no peace; no peace in time or in eternity!